Newspaper Article - October 27, 2008
Eagle Times
Acworth’s Ceara Comeau proves she’s book smart
River Record - Keene Sentinal
By NICOLE S. COLSON
Record Staff
Published: Saturday, January 10, 2009
ACWORTH — Her teenaged peers might have listened to a parent’s story about a trip to an abandoned hospital with interest.
But Ceara Comeau took it one step further: She created a character based on herself and continued the tale from her point of view.
The result was “Amber Oak and the Mystery in the Asylum,” one of five stories in Comeau’s most recent book — that’s right, book — “Amber Oak Mysteries.”
The 15-year-old Acworth resident — a sophomore at Fall Mountain Regional High School — has written two books, the other titled “Adventures of the Young and Curious,” and she’s just getting warmed up.
Comeau read her first Nancy Drew mystery when she was 9.
“I fell in love immediately,” she said. Another favorite is R.L. Stine, author of the well-known young reader mystery series “Goosebumps,” who started writing at age 9.
Comeau started writing following a friend’s suggestion, and with further encouragement from her family, but she didn’t start out writing mysteries. Her first short story was about a blue jay who flew south for the winter and realized where his true home was. “Something inside me told me I could do something more,” she said.
“Amber Oak and the Mystery in the Asylum” is based on a visit her father, John Comeau, made as a boy to a closed-down tuberculosis center. In one room, he told his daughter, it looked as though the doctor’s tools were laid out as if they’d be right back, as if they only stepped out for coffee.
“I wondered, ‘What if something drove them away?’ ” she said. “I always ask myself, ‘What if?’ ”
Amber Oak, her book’s main character, is an outcast at school. At first, she has to be persuaded by a friend but, when she realizes she possesses mystery-solving skills, she continues.
“She’s a new-age Nancy Drew in a way,” Comeau said. “Only she has more spice — she’s more modern.”
The book, which also contains stories titled “Amber Oak and the Ghost Possessed Boy” and “Amber Oak and the Skeleton’s Secret,” is aimed at readers age 13 and up.
Not only is her dad an inspiration for Comeau’s writing — he’s also her editor. Her mother, Charlotte Comeau, serves as her publisher. She uses lulu.com, a self-publishing Web site, and there’s a link to buy books there from Comeau’s own site, phantomave.com. Her site is also a place where readers can really see Comeau’s love of mystery — it includes a page of photos of haunted places around the world.
Since copies of the Amber Oak mysteries and Comeau’s first book, “Adventures of the Young and Curious,” have been printed, Comeau has done a couple of book signings in Acworth and hopes to do many more in the area.
Another supporter of hers has been a cousin who set up “mysteries” for Comeau to solve to fuel her writing and who created a film of one of her stories, starring some of Comeau’s friends. “Fifty people came and watched it in a theater,” Comeau said.
When Comeau runs out of ideas, she uses her friends as inspiration for her characters, and they return the favor.
“My family and friends are really helpful with advertising,” she said, noting some are helping her create a cover for her next book.
Comeau is combining short stories for the second volume of Amber Oak mysteries, which is almost complete. She estimates it will be published in the spring.
This time around, the 16-year-old detective is solving more dangerous mysteries because her abilities have sharpened.
“It’s intense,” Comeau said. “It will keep the reader on the edge of his or her seat.” Comeau already has ideas for a third volume. “I don’t think Amber Oak will ever stop solving mysteries,” she said.
While her peers may have several hobbies, Comeau said writing is her thing. When she’s not writing mysteries, she contributes to her town newsletter. Whether or not she becomes the next R.L. Stine, she will continue. “It’s my own little world,” she said of writing. “Nothing can destroy that.”
The fact that she’s a published author is her encouragement, and her hope is to encourage others. “I’m an example to all dreamers that dreams can come true if you work for it,” she said.
Ceara Comeau’s book, “Amber Oak Mysteries,” can be purchased on the Web at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com; or both of her books can be purchased at her Web site, phantomave.com.
Eagle Times
March 19, 2009
JESSE BAKER PHOTO Ceara Comeau, 16, of Acworth, talks about her life as a young author of mysteries and her plans for a future in forensics. With two published novels, she will be signing books this weekend in Bellows Falls. Teen author has two published books
By CORIN HIRSCH-Staff Writer
Thursday, March 19, 2009 9:40 AM
BELLOWS FALLS -- Like many teenagers, Ceara Comeau's days are filled with the rituals of adolescence: hanging out with her friends. Doing her homework. Writing and publishing books.
That's not a typo: Acworth resident Comeau has two published books under her belt, and is whittling away on her third, which she hopes to finish sometime this summer. And she's just turned 16.
This Saturday, March 21, Comeau will be signing copies of her books at Village Square Books in Bellows Falls. Amber Oaks Mysteries, Volume 1 and Adventures of the Young and Curious, which she calls "modern-day Nancy Drew."
Both are collections of short stories with a paranormal twist. The heroine of the first book, Amber Oaks, is a "spunky" but awkward 16-year-old that finds she has a talent for solving ghostly mysteries, and gradually finds social acceptance through her unusual talents.
Though Comeau has always been interested in ghost stories, her first story -- written at age 11 -- was a simple tale about a blue jay and his adventure away from the nest. "At 12 or 13" she started writing mysteries with a paranormal bent, inspired by her love of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. She also gets ideas from the television show CSI, and from stories told to her by her father, aunts and friends.
The idea to publish her work came to her one summer night at Camp Northfield, when she "looked up at the stars and wished" for an opportunity to get her stories out into the world. Seven weeks later, her mother happened upon Lulu.com, a website that helps authors publish and market their work. With her father, John, serving as editor and her mother as formatter, Charlotte, Comeau uploaded and then examined several proofs before settling on the final format for Amber Oaks Mysteries.
"I learned from my mom that if you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself." said Comeau who has the self-assurance of someone several years older. "You need to pursue your own dreams."
Comeau, a sophomore at Fall Mountain Regional School in Charlestown, has lately scaled back her writing to concentrate on her school work. But her ideas continue to evolve -- her latest work has infusions of romance and fantasy. "It's really fun adding genres," she exudes. She is currently rapturous about the mysteries of Agatha Christie, who she has just discovered.
Comeau always writes her material in longhand, and often doesn't know the end of the story until she writes it herself. Thought she has not received any royalties yet, she expects her first check within the next few weeks. How does she plan to spend it?
"Driver's Ed, or a car. I'd really like to have a car," she says. She will also plow some back into marketing.
Despite her early literary prowess, Comeau insists that she hopes "to get a real career," and plans to study forensics in college.
Saturday's signing is from noon to 2 p.m. at 32 The Square in Bellows Falls. Those who can't make it to Village Square Booksellers can find Ceara's books online at Amazon, or sold at Toadstool Bookshop in Keene, N.H.
CEARA COMEAU - TEEN AUTHOR
Ceara Comeau could easily power most of the buildings in Acworth with her excess energy. She is a lively, chatty 16-year-old who has already written and published two books of short stories: Adventures of the Young and Curious and Amber Oak Mysteries, Volume One.
Amber Oak is a feisty teenager who sniffs out and fearlessly solves unusual mysteries with her often-times reluctant and skeptical cadre of high school friends.
Amber has a penchant for repeatedly becoming entangled in paranormal adventures. To Amber’s curious mind there is nothing strange about solving a decades-old crime after the ghost of a murdered boy possesses the younger brother of her friend, Adam, in the story, The Ghost Possessed Boy. Amber seems equally comfortable walking through a doorway into another time and place while she’s spending the night at her friend, Gwen’s house in The Red Rug Room.
Ceara and her alter-ego Amber share many qualities; a love of mystery and the unknown, daring inquisitiveness, ebullient curiosity, a keen interest in research and the desire to be an unparalleled sleuthhound.
Ceara describes Amber Oak as a loner and a modern-day Nancy Drew. She said, "Amber learns more about herself with each experience."
The Nancy Drew books have been one of Ceara’s literary influences. Ceara said, "I was in heaven!" when she discovered many shelves of Nancy Drew books in the Toadstool Bookstore in Keene.
Currently Ceara is devouring Agatha Christie novels.
Ceara has been an avid reader for as long as she can remember. She began writing stories of her own about five years ago. Before she was a published author Ceara would pass out her stories, which were written in longhand on lined paper and stapled together, to friends and family.
Ceara always writes her stories in longhand and carries a notebook with her at all times so she can scribble down an idea before it vaporizes from her active imagination. "I usually end up falling asleep with a notebook in my hand," explained Ceara.
During the summer of 2008 Ceara’s cousin, Gwen (the inspiration for her story The Red Rug Room) made a twelve-minute movie of Plagued, a story in Ceara’s book Adventures of the Young and Curious about a teenager named Loretta who is afflicted by dreams of Isabella, a young girl who died centuries earlier. About fifty people showed up to watch the theater debut.
Ceara’s career as a young author has been a family affair. Her father, John, serves as her editor and her mother, Charlotte, formats and designs the layout of Ceara’s books.
It was Ceara’s mother Charlotte who stumbled upon a website for self-publishing: Lulu.com. Charlotte decided it was time to give her daughter’s stories a boost by helping her share them with the public.
A junior at Fall Mountain Regional High School, Ceara is currently working on her third book.
Ceara’s books are available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, through her publishing company Lulu.com or through her own website: PhantomAve.com.